A couple of articles in the press in which I am quoted today (and a quite shockingly bad photo of me in the Daily Record, but we will skim over that) in relation to the proportion of those convicted of supplying illegal drugs serving jail time.
The articles can be found at:
[i] http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1391282007
[ii] http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news/tm_headline=msp-jail-all-drug-dealers&method=full&objectid=19718926&siteid=66633-name_page.html
Anyway, the articles come on the back of an answer I received to a written question (S3W-3093 if you are interested in having a look at the Scottish Parliament website) with the government which indicates that whilst in 1985-86 some 72% of those convicted of the supply of illegal drugs served a custodial sentence, by 2005-06 this proportion had dropped to a mere 46%. Less than half of those convicted of peddling drugs are doing jail time!
This statistic is despite the fact that in the same period the number convicted of the offence has risen from 244 in 85-86 to 1,562 in 05-06.
It all indicates that Kenny MacAskill is on the right track with his attempts to ensure that those in prison are the ones that should be in prison. It is a nonsense that we send people like fine defaulters to jail (frequently at a cost well in excess of the fine that has not been paid in the first instance) when only 46% of those convicted of the supply of illegal drugs face a custodial sentence.
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3 comments:
When there's not enough room in the gaol for those who are physically assaulting people. When there's not enough room in the gaol to keep rapists locked up for a long time. When there's not enough room in the gaol to keep murderers locked up for a long time...
Why concern yourself with drug dealers? Drugs should be decriminalised and prescribed - crime to feed drug habits would plummet, and we wouldn't be in the position where drug fuelled crime makes our streets unsafe. But then, you're not really wanting to fix the problem for the long term, are you?
The gaol. How quaint Steve.
I am concerned with drug dealers because they are making peoples lives an absolute misery across much of Scotland. Indeed many of these people actually fall into the category of murderers that you are (rightly) so keen to see locked up.
Of course I want to see murderers and rapists locked up as well. And yes, I am aware that our prisons are packed to the seams. That is why I think Kenny MacAskill has adopted the right approach in trying to lock up those who should be locked up (and I would include those who fall into the three categories of criminal we have referred to) whilst ensuring more appropriate punishments for folk like fine defaulters.
It is a shame that you have come to your own conclusions on me without first asking, but I do want to solve (use of the word "fix" was surely a pun, no?) the problem of drugs abuse for the long term. Of course I do. However, that is a whole other article (and a much longer one at that), but I do believe that properly punishing those who peddle heroin on Scotland's streets is part of that solution.
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